Glen Johnson
Glen McLeod Cooper Johnson (born 23 August 1984) is an English international footballer who currently plays as a right-wing back for Liverpool. He signed from Portsmouth on 13 June 2009 for a fee of around £17,500,000. Liverpool Career Johnson was signed from Portsmouth by former manager Rafael Benitez on 26 June 2009. The fee was worth £17 million with £10 million being paid in cash and the other £7 million still being owed by Portsmouth for the sale of Peter Crouch in the summer of 2008. Johnson played his first game on 15 July 2009 in a friendly against St. Gallen which ended in a 0-0 tie. He made his home debut in a friendly against Athetico Madrid. His competitive debut came in the 2-1 Premier League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on 16 August 2009. On his home debut against Stoke City three days later he scored his first Liverpool goal. On 29 August, Johnson scored his second goal for Liverpool in a 3–2 win against Bolton Wanderers. On 30 December 2009 Johnson tore a ligament in his right knee in a league game against Aston Villa. He would be out of action until the following March. Upon his return he scored his third Liverpool goal against Sunderland at home. In his debut season for Livepool he made 35 starts and 3 goals. Johnson scored his first goal in the 2010-11 season against West Ham United in a 3-0 win. He scored yet again against West Ham in the 1-3 loss. During the latter half of the season, due to the injury of other options, manager Kenny Dalglish played Johnson as left-back with younger Martin Kelly and Jon Flanagan playing in the right-back spot. On 6 July 2011 Johnson signed a contract extension for Liverpool. It has not been released how long the extension will keep him at Anfield. Johnson spent much of the start of the 2011-12 season recovering from injury, however he was quickly restored to the first team upon his return to fitness ahead of youngster Martin Kelly. On 20 November 2011, in only his fourth game of the season, Johnson scored the winner against Chelsea in Liverpool's 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge. In the 87th minute of the match, Johnson collected a long pass from Charlie Adam on the right flank, surged into the Chelsea box after nut-megging England colleague Ashley Cole and fired past Petr Cech. It was particularly ironic that Johnson- a former Chelsea player- grabbed the headlines with the winner, with much of the build-up to the match focusing on ex-Reds Fernando Torres and Raul Meireles facing their old club, Liverpool. Johnson made his 100th appearance for Liverpool on 2 August 2012, in the Europa League third qualifying round first leg away to Belarussian side FC Gomel. In the return leg at Anfield on 9 August, Johnson scored an impressive volley from distance to seal Liverpool's 4-0 aggregate win. On 9 December 2012, Johnson opened his league account for the 2012-13 season, firing the first in a 3-2 win against his former club West Ham United- the third time he had scored against the Hammers in a Liverpool shirt- with a long range effort that nestled into the top corner. Johnson made his 100th League appearance for Liverpool on 11 February 2013 in a home match against West Brom. Unfortunately it would not be an occasion to remember as the Reds lost 2-0, with Johnson himself coming under particular criticism for an uncharacteristically poor performance. Honours Liverpool *League Cup: 1 (2012) Individual *No. 51 on 100 Players Who Shook The Kop (2013) Stats External links * *Glen Johnson's profile on liverpoolfc.com * Johnson Johnson